FRHS takes county

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians graduated three runners from the team that competed at state last year.

That’s no problem for the girls, who reloaded and got strong performances out of freshman Makenna Huelskamp and junior Anna Roessner to open the season.

Four girls medaled as the Fort Recovery High School girls cross country team claimed the crown during the Mercer County Meet at Ohio Progressive Sportsman Club on Tuesday.

The girls team claimed the top two spots, as well as three more in the top 20 to finish with 43 points, 10 better than second-place St. Henry.

The boys finished in fifth with a score of 100. They beat St. Henry (136), while Marion Local won the meet with 47.

“Our goal today was to not worry about times and just practice racing,” FRHS coach Christy Diller said. “Mission accomplished on that … I’m happy with today.”

Huelskamp and senior Natalie Brunswick set the pace right away for the girls. Approaching the first kilometer of the race, they were together with Huelskamp running slightly ahead.

Brunswick was dealing with a slight cramp in her side, according to Diller, but powered through to take the lead near the midway point of the race with Huelskamp staying strong behind her.

With only one kilometer to go, they had established themselves as the athletes to beat, with only Celina’s Jenalee Dameron in sight behind them.

The duo pulled off the one-two finish with times of 20 minutes, 52.5 seconds, for Brunswick, the defending district champion, and 21:18.67 for Huelskamp. Dameron finished nine seconds later for third place.

“Since Natalie was up there too, it pushed me a lot,” Huelskamp said. “I heard people yelling Jenalee’s name behind me and that pushed me too.”

Being a freshman, it was Huelskamp’s first 5K race at the high school level. She had a six-minute first mile, fading off on the second with an eight-minute mile. Working on more consistent racing and being able to figure out the third mile is something Diller wants all four of her freshmen (Huelskamp, Reese Diller, Milo Fiely and Russell Hart) to learn going forward.

“Coming from junior high, they’ve got to figure that third mile out, which doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s a lot,” Diller said. “All of our freshmen today you could tell (were worried) about that third mile.”

The next Indian to cross the finish line was Roessner, who consistently placed between sixth and eighth last season. She was floating around 10th place throughout the entire race, finishing there with a time of 22:39.38. Now fully healthy, Roessner didn’t set high expectations for the race, ending up thrilled with the result.

“I am pretty excited about it,” Roessner said. “Before the race I thought it would be nice to get a medal but I probably won’t.” (The top 15 finishers earn medals.) “I did end up getting one so I’m happy about that for sure.”

Also medaling for the girls was Ellie Will, who finished 13th at the 24:18.2 mark.

Joelle Kaup rounded out the team score with a time of 25:03.55 (17th). Jenna Hart (20th) and Maddie Heitkamp (32nd) finished in the final two slots for the Indians.

Trevor Heitkamp dominated the boys race from start to finish. Colin Buening of Celina hung around with Heitkamp for the first mile, but fell off in the middle of the second. Heitkamp finished with a time of 17:31.34, 35 seconds faster than Buening.

Despite running so well, Heitkamp had to ask his dad if he won when he crossed the finish line.

“That third mile, the heat just got to me,” Heitkamp said. “I was fading in and out of awareness. … My mind switched to ‘let’s get to the finish line’ and didn’t worry about my time at all.”

Parker Brunswick finished next for the Indians. He started the race as part of the pack up at the front, but slowly paced back to finish 12th (19:05.12).

Diller approached the race a little differently from Brunswick. He was in the mid-30s at the 1K mark. He worked his way up to 21st at the midway point and then to the low teens with only one kilometer to go. He finished the race at 19:11.73 to medal (13th place).

The other two scorers for the Indians were Evan Evers (42nd – 22:24) and Milo Fiely (45th – 22:58.67). Filling out the final two spots were Russell Hart (50th) and Caden Marchal (63rd).

“It’s a great way to start the year and a confidence builder for them,” Diller said. “For the most part a really solid opener.”

Junior high

The junior high teams also competed Tuesday with the boys team placing third (73) and the girls fourth (65). 

Celina won the boys with 50 points while the girls team from Coldwater won with 41.

Riley Hietkamp earned the county championship for the girls (14:37.13) 

Courney Klenke and Kendall Ranly finished back-to-back for the Tribe girls’ second and third place. They finished 12th and 13th overall, scoring one place higher each.

Claire Grube (23rd overall, 18th scoring) and Addyson Heitkamp (32nd overall, 23rd scoring) rounded out the girls scores.

Alex Roessner crossed the finish line at 13:16.99 to finish third for the boys team.

Next up was Charlie Stammen, earning 13th-place.

Despite a 14-second gap, Evan Diller and Andrew Rehmert finished back-to-back to claim 17th and 18th for the Indians.

Chase Fiely earned the final score, coming in 22nd.